From one problem to the next

In the five and half years we’ve lived here we seem to lurch from one problem to another. Him Indoors has had serious health problems but is now in remission thankfully though he’s still had the odd fever necessitating an all day sitting at A&E in a windowless room with only a few small health posters to look at. Still, we both survived – him by sleeping through most of it.

Then stress reared it’s ugly head in the shape of Vodafone. I’m not going into detail as I just want to forget the whole sorry mess. At least we did get our £550 back – eventually!

Swiftly on the heels of that fiasco son number two was stranded in France for a week with a broken down car and little money. He finally managed, with the help of a kind French couple, to get a train to Cherbourg and then the ferry home to West Cork where he lives, leaving the car behind with the numerous faults the garage found. That also caused me some sleepless nights. He still doesn’t know yet if it’s worth paying the cost of the ferry to go and fetch the car which is quite old. Plus he’d have the cost of all the repairs.

Now we are wondering what’s next on the agenda, hoping it’s nothing that will stop us having a much needed holiday next week.

I haven’t done very much gardening as my back gave out and since I’d also had cataract surgery couldn’t have any treatment on it for 6-8 weeks afterwards. Now I have exercises as well as painful chiropractor treatments – I hope he doesn’t enjoy inflicting pain! There is improvement though.

Honestly it’s all good fun here! Himself is planning to alter the garden by making the borders bigger. He’s giving up the allotment as it’s becoming too much for him, especially the watering. I finally, and most generously I thought, said he could plant some veg in among my flowers but refuse to have a whole border devoted to veg. Now when we go to a garden centre I have to prevent myself from buying more plants. Once the garden is done though…….

I haven’t been on GOY much due to the above problems, which are only a few (but the biggest) of them. With luck I shall soon become a regular again – if my memory lets me remember the plant names!

Oh dear you've all been in the wars in one way or another, must have been so worrying for you Arbuthnot, lets hope its all behind you, have a lovely relaxing holiday, wind yourself down. I have given you a like as a welcome back, look forward to seeing more from you...

Sorry to hear about all these trials at once. That could be exhausting and disheartening. A relaxing holiday seems sorely needed and will do you well. I would let the clunker go and be done with it. Enjoy your holiday.

Thank you all for the kind well wishes. The car isn’t my problem to sort out but my son will do it eventually. As for Vodafone until I get my next bill I won’t know if it has been properly sorted but hopefully the holiday will stop me from fretting over it. I can tell you it was a nightmare, necessitating a total of more than five hours of phone calls, including being constantly put on hold. Promises that the bill was sorted amounted to nothing and what should have been a straightforward procedure turned unto a monumental mess.

Still, the weather promises to be fine, even warm next week and that can only be good. I can’t wait to get some sea air.

Sorry to hear what a time you have had perhaps with the holiday things will start going your way.
Once I retired my borders got bigger and bigger and I love them all so much that they are still growing and I love the continuous colour and flowering they give from January,s snow drops into winter. Its good to keep busy and active and have something to look forward to through the winter months.

I had to Google to find out what Vodafone was. I had similar problems with T-Mobile. They kept charging me for things I never asked for. I got my money back and switched to Virgin Mobile, a smaller company but superior service.

Oh dear, they do say troubles never come in ones...Lets hope you're seen the last of them for a while. Sending you lots of will power to do the exercises - its hard to stick with something you don't really want to do...
have a good holiday anyway and come back with new enthusiasm.

Thank you, everyone. I’m sure all your good wishes will do the trick but if not I won’t blame any of you! :))

Vodafone, Paul, is one of the biggest providers yet has the worst score for customer relations. We have Virgin here too so my son is with them and has super fast fibre WiFi. Alas we don’t have that in our area. Once we’ve been compensated for all our dues from V though we shall move elsewhere. I can’t take the hassle at my age.